Chinese author wins Nobel for literature

BEIJING: For years, China has longed for a Nobel Prize to validate its new status in the world. State newspapers have written of the feelings of "anxiety, hope, effort, self-confidence, disappointment and even rejection" that have accompanied each ceremony.

But instead, the only Chinese citizens honoured by the Nobel committee - the Dalai Lama and the dissident writer Liu Xiaobo - have been enemies of the state.

There were instant catcalls of derision on the Chinese internet.

On Thursday, all that changed when the author Mo Yan was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Official winner ... Mo Yan talks to the media in his hometown of Gaomi, Shandong province, after the Nobel announcement. Photo: Reuters

The 57-year-old writer, perhaps best known for his early novel Red Sorghum, was praised for his "hallucinatory realism" and compared by the Nobel committee to William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Advertisement

"The award is the inevitable result of China's rising power and its development," said Zhang Yiwu, a professor at Peking University. "More honours will come to us, and even faster than we expected. They definitely made a far-sighted choice."

Mo becomes the only Nobel Prize winner to be a member of the Communist Party. By contrast, Liu is currently the only Nobel Prize winner to be languishing in a jail cell. His wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest.

Both Liu and the Dalai Lama were studiously ignored yesterday by the Chinese media. In the run-up to the ceremony, China Central Television, the state broadcaster, did its best to rewrite history by asking: "Can Mo Yan become the first Chinese Nobel Prize winner?"

There were instant catcalls of derision on the Chinese internet, with one wag pointing out that the problem with the Dalai Lama and Liu was that "one cannot get in [to China]" and the other "cannot get out [of prison]".

The mocking extended to the website of the Nobel committee, where several commentators congratulated Mo on being the first "officially acceptable" Nobel Prize winner.

For his part, Mo said he was "overjoyed and scared" at the prize, perhaps concerned at the firestorm of scrutiny that has already blown up around him. "I do not think winning the prize means much, as there are many brilliant writers in China and their works should be acknowledged by the world too," he modestly told the state media.

Born Guan Moye in the Chinese countryside, Mo's pen name literally means "Do not comment", a reminder to himself, he said, not to get into trouble by being outspoken. He became a writer while serving in the People's Liberation Army and some of his early work was banned for being too controversial.

But over time he has become a pillar of the establishment, and now serves as the vice-chairman of the government-controlled China Writers Association.

After the announcement, he immediately came under fire from dissidents as a government stooge.

"He sings the same tune as an undemocratic regime," said Teng Biao, a human rights lawyer, before the award. "As an influential writer, he did not use his influence to speak up for intellectuals."

His critics also lambasted him for hand-copying, together with several other Chinese writers, a speech by Chairman Mao which forced writers to put their talent in the service of the party.

However, Chen Xiaoming, a professor of Chinese language and literature at Peking University, said Mo was "brilliant at combining universal human experience with the particulars of Chinese life".

"His works are about a nation and about history, but he is not a political person. His politics are concerned with justice".

Mo is the 105th winner of the prize, which will be awarded on December 10.